Toddler excited for morning cartoons overdoses on fentanyl, Oregon officials say
A 3-year-old boy suffered “a life-altering brain injury” from a fentanyl overdose, and now his parents have been sentenced to prison, Oregon prosecutors said.
The mother and father were sentenced to about 4 ½ years and 6-plus years behind bars, respectively, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said in a May 11 news release.
Their son woke up on June 25, 2023, full of excitement “to watch cartoons with his grandmother,” prosecutors said. Then, he got a hold of fentanyl in the home, according to prosecutors.
The boy is now 5 and “remains significantly impacted by those injuries,” prosecutors said. Portland police said in an April news release that the boy is “under the guardianship of a (Department of Human Services) caretaker, and he requires 24-hour medical care.”
McClatchy News isn’t naming the parents to protect the boy’s identity.
The boy’s parents were accused of first-degree criminal mistreatment and third-degree assault in his overdose, plus first-degree failure to appear after they didn’t show up for a sentencing hearing scheduled in April, prosecutors said. They later turned themselves in.
McClatchy News reached out to the mother’s attorney May 12 and was awaiting a response.
The father’s attorney declined to comment to McClatchy News in a May 12 email.
Deputy District Attorney Afton Coppedge said in the new release that “kids need to be safe at home just like they need to be safe in the community. And so, we will hold people accountable even when that’s parents.” Coppedge added that the case is all-around tragic, and “there is no doubt in my mind that these parents love this child and that he loves them.”
The parents are eligible to participate in alternative incarceration programs, prosecutors said.
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